represents the creation itself much like Brahm, the Supreme Being who is also treated
as being an embodiment of the entire creation.
(^4) Lord Shiva is not at all ashamed of the way he lives because he knows that he is
following the Truth and the call of his inner-self that gives him eternal peace,
happiness and bliss, and that he is fortunate not to have been mislead by the illusive
charms of the material world. He is proud of his renunciate way of life intead of
feeling guilty and ashamed of it.
(^5) Only a living being who has a gross physical body has a parent. One who has no
physical body does not have a parent. The parent is the one who gives shape to the
gross physical body of the living organism, while the Atma or the soul that lives
inside this body of the organism is independent of the parent.
Shiva is not a god with a physical body, but the eternal and pure cosmic
Consciousness that is known variously as the Atma or the Soul, or even as Brahm.
The Atma is pure Consciousness that has no beginning or end. That is Lord Shiva,
who is a personified form of cosmic Consciousness, is also eternal and imperishable.
The entire creation has its origin in Brahm represented by Shiva, and it is not vice
versa. This being the case, Shiva has no parent from whom his origin can be traced in
the conventional sense. Only mortal beings who have a gross body can trace their
origin to a parent who gives birth to the body that the world recognises as a particular
creature. But the Atma or the pure conscious soul of the living being that lives in his
gross body is not created by any of the parents. Shiva represents this element known
as the ‘Atma’ which is not related to anyone, and is not created by anyone for the
simple reason that it is an eternal and imperishable entity that was present before this
creation came into being, and will be there after this creation.
(^6) Lord Shiva is said to be “Ageha”—i.e. he has no known or certain home, and
there it is difficult to know where he is or how to accesss him.
It will be very easy to understand this aspect of Shiva if one understands that
“Shiva” represents the essential element known as the “Consciousness” of this
creation. This element is subtle and sublime; it is uniformally distributed throughout
the creation, and there is no place where it is not present. So it is very difficult to say
that Shiva (“Consciousness”) is present or not present here or there in any certain
term. Remember: The scriptures have unanimously declared that Brahm (Shiva) is
‘Neti-Neti’, i.e. ‘not this not that’. Therefore, it is unwise to delineate any specific
place as the habitat of Shiva. He lives in the form of the ‘Truth’ everywhere; he lives
as the ‘Atma’ everywhere.
The elements of ‘Truth’ and the ‘Atma’ are so unique by their inherent nature that
while for some they are easily accessible, for others they defy understanding. That is,
they are “Ageha”—not known, understandable or accessible easily.
(^7) The Yogtattva Upanishad of Krishna Yajur Veda tradition, in its verse nos. 98-
102 says that Shiva is the patron deity and personification of the sky element. Since
Shiva represents Brahm who is attributeless, all-pervading and all-encompassing, an
entity that is uniformly present in this creation, enclosing the entire creation from the
outside and at the same time permeating in each of its pore, the only element that is
the nearest analogue to it is the ‘sky element’.
Remaining “naked” is a metaphoric way of saying that Shiva has nothing to
conceal, that he wears the sky as his garment. A true ascetic also lives in this way as
he has nothing to hide from the world and he has no possession to conceal from theft.
(^8) Refer also to “Parvati Mangal”, verse nos. 49, 51, 53-56 which says exactly a
similar thing.
The Yogtattva Upanishad of Krishna Yajur Veda tradition, in its verse nos. 92-94
says that Lord Shiva, in his form as Rudra, is the patron deity and personification of
the fire element, and it is no wonder then that he is surrounded by ‘fire-spitting’
serpents as a symbolism of this fact.
The Dakshin Murti Upanishad of Krishna Yajur Veda, in its verse nos. 8, 10, 13,
15 and 19 affirms that Shiva is invariably wrapped by serpents.